Outcome of Pharmaceutical care in HIV clinic in the Wapipathum hospital
Abstract
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the outcome of pharmaceutical care in the HIV clinic in Wapipathum hospital including adherence to antiretroviral therapy, adverse drug reactions from antiretroviral therapy, and treatment outcomes based on viral load and CD4 cell counts. The study was performed using a retrospective descriptive design. All the required data were collected from January 2016 to December 2018. Patients with HIV and AIDS who have continued receiving antiretroviral therapy for at least six months and received care at the one stop service HIV clinic in Wapiphatum hospital for at least one year were included in this study. Data of pharmaceutical care services and patients’ adherence assessment based on pill count and self-report were obtained from patients’ chart reviews. From a total of 247 patients with HIV and AIDS, there were 212 old cases and 35 new cases with 1,943 prescriptions during the study period. Approximately 84.21% of patients (N=208) had an adherence rate higher than 95%. Medication errors occurred 151 times and the most common medication errors were non-adherence (N=115 or 76.6%) which were solved by counselling and followed up on during the next visit. Adverse drug reactions occurred 92 times and common adverse drug reactions included dizziness from Efavirenz (35 times, 38.04%), dyslipidemia (30 times, 32.61%). 35 new cases, who were treatment-naive, received antiretroviral agents for the first year, 86.11% of these cases (N=31) had a viral load of less than 50 copies/mL and 82.86% of these cases (N=29) had a CD4 cell counts of more than 200 cells/mm3. In conclusion, Pharmaceutical care helps patients to improve adherence. It can solve the problem of medication errors and slight adverse reactions from drugs. This results in a favorable therapeutic outcome.
Keywords: Pharmaceutical care, adherence, antiretroviral
